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The Car Mod Thread...
- Thread starter MatthewLTL
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Could be valve cover, but also be valve stem seals, head gasket, or o-rings. This could be indicative of a very big problem.
i know. but if i replace those, might as well replace the whole gasket too.
valve stem seals? head gasket?! really dude? the things only get 45700 miles!
I've never thought of head gasket failure as being age related. Often it's a result of the engine overheating.
It all depends on where the leak is. You could have white smoke in the exhaust, oil leaks, or low compression in one or more cylinders(although a bad valve also causes this). Sometimes more than one symptom is present, but it could be only one. It all depends on where the failure is.
Valve stem seals will usually put out smoke until the engine warms up. You can check for a head gasket issue with a combustion leak tester kit to be certain. Scotty Kilmer has made a video demonstrating the usage of these testers here. There are also some tell tale signs like oil that appears like a chocolate milkshake (due to a mixture of coolant and oil), crud build up on the radiator and oil caps, loss of compression, mysterious loss of coolant, etc. The spark plug tube seals are much less serious and an be resolved simply and affordably. Scotty also made a video here about them.
You've had a lot of issues for a car with 45k miles to be honest, especially for touting how reliable it is.
Given that you drive your car in a cold climate, use one of the thickest oil possible, and your mechanic reported "dangerously low" oil levels, it's quite possible your engine has spent a lot of time operating at a higher than ideal temperature.
All the threads seem to end up this way.
edit: REPAIRS ARE MODZZZ
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So I guess Daewoo's aren't as reliable as you've claimed? Because no car should need major repairs with only 45,000 miles. 45k is nothing.
The engine always stays at operating tempature. It would over heat last year when the Thermostat went bad again but blasting the heat kept it from hitting dangerous heat temps. I have 5w30 in it. I did buy som 5W40 for it and actually did add one whole quart. Still leaks with 5w40 so perhaps using 10w30 will help.
Well it's too hard to follow your stories because they change constantly. You haven't changed the oil in 3 years but you've changed the oil three times. You're not leaking oil but you've added a quart.
Even a few seconds of overheating is enough to cause damage, especially if you have an aluminum engine. If you were driving with an elevated temperature for extended period, that can also damage your engine. If you were driving and thought blasting the heat would definitely keep your engine safe, think again.
I think you are confusing both cars as one again. The Impala take 10w30, when i changed the oil i bought 10w30 (thinking the car took 5w30). When i realized it took 10w30 I was like "****!" bought some 10w40 not too much later and had to use it because the car burned SO MUCH OIL the CEL was flashing, engine knocked and power was lost. There was so little oil in the impala it wouldnt even register on the dipstick! si u dumped 2 quarts of 10w40 in. Never had the issue again. I'vr had to add 1 quart of 5w40 to the Daewoo (it is not easy finding 5w40 oil) since i replaced the oil. This month when I do the oil changes I will get 10w40 for the Impala and 10w30 for the daewoo.
@MatthewLTL The fact that the Impala burns oil and was knocking indicates that the engine has severe damage.
I've been talking about the Daewoo pretty much the entire time here. I'm not sure why when I reference the Daewoo you answer with Impala information, but whatever. Please be more specific to which car you're referring to.
The Daewoo had the t-stat replaced? This is the one that was overheating.
So which car has the oil coming out of the spark plugs?
Which car was seen by the mechanic and said to have "dangerously low oil"
all of those were the daewoo. However I checked the other day and there was no more oil coming out of the spark plug hole. go figure
112k miles when we bought it. As I've stated before it wasn't take care of, cosmetically or mechanically.
At 45k miles, almost anything is major because stuff shouldn't be breaking. You keep saying how reliable your Daewoo is, but you're sinking a ton of money in to it to keep it running. Money that you probably wouldn't be spending if you bought a a 2001 Honda or Toyota.
I have all of $1300 in my Suburban and now it is just cosmetic work like rust repair. Quite a reliable vehicle.